


All of You

by thesynapticsnap



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Crushes, Day At The Beach, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, First Kiss, Fluff, Hugs, M/M, Requited Love, Scars, Shance Fluff Week 2017, Well...sort of a first kiss :)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-04
Updated: 2017-06-04
Packaged: 2018-11-09 00:23:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11093025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesynapticsnap/pseuds/thesynapticsnap
Summary: The team takes a day off to relax on a tropical beach planet, but Shiro doesn’t want to join in the fun. Lance suspects something is bothering him and tries to get him to open up, which leads to more than one secret being revealed.





	All of You

**Author's Note:**

> I know everybody and their mama has done the whole ‘Shiro is insecure about his scars so his love interest comforts him’ thing but I couldn’t help myself! Written for Shance Fluff Week 2017, Day 2 - Sea/Stars.

Lance was pretty sure he was the closest to heaven he was ever going to get.

Allura and Coran had surprised the rest of them that day with a trip to what Lance had promptly dubbed “The Awesome Beach Planet”. It wasn’t exactly the most creative name, but it described their current location perfectly.

Clear, blue waters reminiscent of Earth’s tropical oceans spanned the entire planet. What little land the planet boasted was divided into thousands of small islands, each home to a race of friendly, laid-back aliens. The beach of the island they’d chosen for their mini-vacation was covered in pink sand that was insanely soft beneath their feet. Trees and other various plants, some of which had flowers in colors Lance could swear he’d never seen before, dotted the landscape a short distance from the shoreline. There were also plenty of the natives there to keep them company, swimming in the waters or playing games on the beach just like humans did back home.

The natives weren’t particularly humanoid, however, so Lance was out of luck as far as ‘hot babes in skimpy clothing’ material went. That was fine by him, though -- his teammates looked pretty good in their swimsuits.

Allura, absolute goddess that she was, nearly floored him when she came out in a bikini. He’d made a remark (because come on), but even he knew his flirting with her was just good-natured teasing at this point. He’d made the same kind of off-color remark to Hunk when he came out dressed in his swim trunks. Hunk had given him a far more satisfying reaction than Allura’s eye roll, actually looking a little flustered with Lance’s comments.

Pidge was super cute in the tank and shorts she’d chosen, though her legs were so white they seemed to reflect in the sunlight, and even Coran looked handsome (in an old guy sort of way) in his beachwear. Keith was still...Keith...but Lance could admit he didn’t look half-bad running around the beach. Mainly because he was smiling for once.

Lance spent the first part of the day in the surf with Hunk. They both called islands home back on Earth and were totally in their element in the water. He honestly could have spent all day swimming and diving under the waves with Hunk, but Pidge had coaxed them to shore with a challenge to play against her and Keith in a game similar to volleyball. A game which Lance and Hunk had proceeded to win in no time flat.

It was after this game that Lance finally turned his attention to the one member of their group that hadn’t been out in the surf or basking in the sun all day.

Shiro was sitting in the shade, watching the others with a distant look on his face. He had his boots off and pants hiked up to his calves, but was still wearing his undershirt and vest. Lance couldn’t remember a time he’d seen Shiro so much as roll up his sleeves. The older paladin always retreated to his room to change out of his armor after missions, and any time he’d been injured he wouldn’t allow anyone to help him into the bodysuit required for the healing pods. Lance did think it was a damn shame a gorgeous specimen like Shiro was so modest, but he’d never really considered it unusual.

But sitting out a day at the beach fully-clothed? That was a little weird.

“Hey there, chief,” Lance greeted Shiro as he joined him in the shade. “You filling in for Keith today or something? Sulking around in all black at the beach seems like something he should be doing.”

Shiro offered him a small smile.

“I’m fine, Lance. I’d just prefer to use this day to relax.”

“You can relax and still have fun! Come on, go swimming with me. I promise not to splash you. I only splashed Keith earlier because he was being such a douche about getting his hair wet.”

“I’ll pass. Thank you, though.”

“Oh, fine! I guess I’ll just have to sit here and keep you company then!” Lance huffed, flopping back against the blanket Shiro was using. 

He tucked his palms beneath his head and closed his eyes, breathing in the scent of the tropical forest just behind them. The smell of rich vegetation and budding flowers coupled with the feel of warm sand caked on his feet and the sound of the ocean’s gentle roar reminded him of home. It wasn’t even close to being the same of course -- nowhere could ever truly be home without his family -- but somehow that was ok. He was here among people that he’d fought aside against impossible odds, friends with whom he shared a destiny, and that made it a little less lonely on the other side of the universe.

“Lance. You don’t need to sit here with me. You should go and enjoy yourself.”

“Trying to get rid of me, eh?” Lance replied, peeking open one eye to look at him.

“No. I just know you’d rather be with the others having fun.”

“Nah, I needed a break, man,” said Lance. He opened both eyes and propped himself up on his elbows. “And you just looked so pitiful over here all by yourself I couldn’t stand it.”

Shiro’s smile faded somewhat and he looked out toward the ocean where the others were still playing in the surf. 

“I really am fine, Lance.”

Lance looked down and fiddled with some loose strings on the blanket. He could tell something was bothering Shiro, but it was obvious he didn’t want to talk about it. The polite thing to do would be to leave him alone and let him brood in peace -- but ‘polite’ wasn’t what Shiro needed at the moment in Lance’s opinion.

“How about we take a walk down the beach?” he said. “Just me and you. We can look for some shells to give to Allura or something.”

“All right,” Shiro sighed, seeming to resign himself to the fact Lance was not going away. He stood up and waited for Lance to get to his feet before following him towards the shoreline.

Lance took them down to where the waves lapped at the sand. There Shiro stepped into the path of the incoming tide without prompting, letting the water crash against his ankles and rush past him toward the shore. Lance smiled seeing Shiro splash up water with his every step. Such a loud and clumsy action was uncharacteristic of their stoic leader.

It made him want to turn and kick up a spray of seawater at him to see if he might get Shiro to drop his cool demeanor entirely and engage in a childish splashing fight, but he forced himself to refrain. He had promised, after all.

The two of them trekked through the surf for a while, Lance tending to fall behind as he stopped to scour the water for shells almost every other step. Shiro would routinely look over his shoulder to check on him, and upon realizing he was not at his heels he would pause to look out across the horizon as he waited for him to catch up.

“Lance, I think we’ll have more luck looking for shells further up the beach,” Shiro said when Lance turned up empty-handed once more. He pointed toward the dunes a little ways from the shore, where the pink sand was littered with smooth, white objects of various shapes and sizes.

“My hero!” Lance proclaimed. 

He rushed past Shiro before he could see the blush that had risen to his cheeks, because wow, he hadn’t actually intended to blurt that out. He knew Shiro wouldn’t think twice about it, but still...the words immediately brought one of Lance’s many embarrassing daydreams to mind, in which he swooned in Shiro’s arms after some valiant rescue and declared the exact same thing.

Thankfully he didn’t get to linger on these thoughts for long, as the objects Shiro had pointed out were indeed a massive pile of shells. He grinned and squatted down to begin sifting through them. Many were only fragments, but the whole ones among them were beautiful. Lance couldn’t stand to let any of them go, and tucked them into one of his hands until it was full.

“Here, I can hold some.”

Lance hadn’t realized that Shiro had squatted beside of him until he felt his fingers brush against his clenched hand. The touch was gentle, a request rather than a demand. Lance felt heat rising to his cheeks once more, but he swallowed down a nervous squeak and slowly unfurled his hand in Shiro’s palm. He looked down and found himself intrigued by the sight of their hands against one another, his own seeming so small and delicate in Shiro’s larger hand.

“Um,” Shiro said, and Lance realized he’d allowed the touch to linger a few ticks past ‘amount of time you get to touch your teammate and still claim it was entirely platonic’.

“Sorry,” Lance mumbled, quickly jerking his hand away. He turned his attention back to the shells, and was glad when Shiro found a spot to poke around a few feet away.

He spent a few minutes gathering shells in silence after that, hoping to let some of the awkwardness dissipate before he tried to talk with Shiro. The whole reason he’d wanted to get Shiro away from the others was because he’d figured it might be easier for him to talk about whatever was bothering him if they were alone. Of course, Lance seemed to have forgotten that every time he was alone with Shiro for more than five minutes his infatuation with the man tended to usurp his higher brain functions.

“Hey, Shiro?” he finally said.

“Mm? Yeah?”

Lance hesitated before turning to look Shiro in the eye.

“Seriously, what’s wrong? Why didn’t you want to join the rest of us today?”

Shiro looked away, dropping his gaze to the ground.

“It’s nothing, Lance.”

“Bullshit, dude. I’m uh, pretty familiar with bottling up my emotions, believe it or not. I can tell something’s eating at you. It’s probably been eating at you for a while, too.”

Shiro grimaced, keeping his eyes fixed on the ground.

“Shiro. You can’t tell the rest of us not to keep secrets or hide our feelings and then ignore your own rules.”

“It’s different with me,” Shiro said. “It has to be.”

“Nope, sorry, you don’t get a pass because you’re the leader, pal. We know you’re still human. Hate to break it to you.”

There was another pause before Shiro drew in a breath and spoke.

“I have scars,” he said quietly. “From my time with the Galra. I...I’m not comfortable letting anyone else see them.”

The confession hit Lance right in the gut. Suddenly everything made sense -- why Shiro insisted on limping off to his room to change out of his armor before entering the healing pod, why he never took off his heavy vest and undershirt even when they were on desert planets and sweat poured down his forehead the entire visit… 

Lance was ashamed to admit it, but he hadn’t even considered Shiro’s modesty might be rooted in insecurity. Shiro was such a strong, attractive person that it was almost laughable to think he would be self-conscious. 

“Dude...Shiro. You know none of us are going to judge you for something like that.”

Shiro didn’t reply, continuing to keep his gaze fixed on the ground as he toyed with a shell in his hand.

“Shiro?” Lance scooted over to where he was squatted and lay a hand on his shoulder. He waited to see if Shiro would shrug him off, but he allowed the touch. “Shiro, look at me. Seriously.”

Shiro slowly lifted his head.

“We’re your friends, Shiro. We don’t care if you have scars.”

“I know,” said Shiro. His voice was strained.

“Then why aren’t you in a speedo getting a good tan right now?” said Lance, trying to inject some humor into the conversation. “You’re doing everyone on this planet a disservice by keeping your shirt on, dude.”

He cringed when his words failed to get even the faintest smile out of Shiro.

“Look, I’m just saying you’re out of your mind if you think you’re ugly or something,” he said, averting his gaze as he felt the familiar tingle of a blush blooming against his cheeks yet again. “You’re uh, really attractive, dude. Really,  _ really  _ attractive. A few scars sure as hell can’t change that.”

“I’m not sure you’d say that if you saw them.”

“Trust me, dude, I would.”

There was another pause before Shiro got to his feet, gesturing for Lance to do the same. Once they were both standing Shiro undid his vest and handed it to Lance before reaching for the hem of his undershirt.

“Lance...you’re going to be the first person to see these. I haven’t even shown Keith my scars yet, so you have to promise me you won’t mention this to the others.”

Petty as it was, Lance couldn’t help but feel a little smug knowing he was about to be privy to something not even Keith knew about Shiro.

“Scout’s honor,” Lance assured him.

Shiro hesitated, his fingers twitching at the hem on his shirt, before he drew it over his head in one swift motion. He let his arms slump to his sides once it was off, letting Lance take in the sight of him.

Lance managed to keep his face blank as his gaze roamed over Shiro’s chest. Just as he’d thought, Shiro was extremely well-toned. Lance felt a spike of envy seeing his incredible pectorals and chiseled six-pack, but he was pretty sure lust trumped every other emotion he was feeling at the moment.

There were more scars than he’d been expecting. Most were still a faint pink in color, thick and cordlike above the pale expanse of Shiro’s skin. One of the nastier looking ones hooked around Shiro’s hipbone, and he caught himself circling Shiro to trace its end. When he finally glanced up, he wasn’t able to stop himself from gasping.

Shiro’s back bore so many scars that it was hard to tell where one began and another ended. Every inch of skin had been mangled, leaving behind hundreds of discolored, raised marks as a permanent reminder of the Galra’s cruelty.

“Shiro, oh my god,” Lance whispered, resting his hand against Shiro’s back. “I’m so sorry…”

“And this is exactly why I didn’t want to tell anyone,” Shiro said flatly. “I knew it would just upset you.”

“Jesus, Shiro, of course I’m upset! I freaking care about you! All of us care about you!”

“I don’t doubt that, Lance, but none of you needed to know the extent of my injuries. There’s nothing you can do to change what happened. I shouldn’t have shown you, I shouldn’t--”

Shiro stepped forward and made to pull his shirt back on, and Lance felt himself act before his brain caught up with what he was doing. 

He threw his arms around Shiro’s middle and tugged him backward into a hug, resting his face against his back.

“Don’t you dare,” he murmured against Shiro’s skin. 

Lance knew Shiro was more than capable of shoving him off and doing what he damned well pleased, but he wasn’t going to make it easy for him.

“Lance. Let go.”

Still, Shiro didn’t make any attempt to push him away.

“Look...I’m not going to tell anyone, ok?” Lance said. “But you need to show the others eventually. Like, soon. I mean geez, tell Keith at least. You guys are like, super close... he deserves to know about this.”

It took a lot to mention Keith, but he knew it was the right thing to do. He might be more than a little jealous of Keith’s closeness to Shiro, but even he wasn’t petty enough to let jealousy get in the way of assuring Shiro got the support he needed. Lance hoped that someday he might share a similar bond with their leader, that someday Shiro would feel comfortable coming to him with his problems on his own. 

“I’ll try, Lance. I can’t make any promises on how soon it’s going to happen, though.”

“As long as you swear you’re actually going to try, that’s good enough for me,” Lance said, slowly releasing his grasp on Shiro. “Like, I know this is tough, man. And uh, I’m really glad you showed me. Thanks for trusting me enough to do that.”

“Well...thank you for getting me to open up,” said Shiro, rubbing at the back of his head. “You were right...this has been eating at me for a while. I needed to tell someone.”

Shiro stared down at the shirt in his hands, seeming hesitant to put it back on now. Lance realized this was probably the first time since his capture that he’d stood shirtless under warm skies. He imagined it was very freeing to expose all of his scars after hiding them for so long. Tucking away a part of yourself out of fear of what others would think really wore on you after a while.

“Oh, and Shiro?” Lance said. He cleared his throat, feeling a little awkward. “I uh, totally stand by what I said earlier. You’re still hot.”

Shiro simpered. 

“Lance, I know the scars aren’t pretty to look at.”

“If I have to kiss every single one of your scars to prove to you I don’t give a shit I will.”

Wow. That had been rather...bold.

“You might not like some of the places you have to kiss,” Shiro replied, looking somewhat amused by Lance’s suggestive remark.

Lance chuckled weakly.

“You uh, really don’t know me that well if you think that.”

Shiro crossed his arms, one of his eyebrows disappearing into his hairline.

“What was that you were saying earlier about not keeping secrets from the rest of the team, Lance?”

“Yeah, so…” Lance stopped to clear his throat again. “Let’s just forget everything that came out of my mouth in the last few seconds, shall we?”

He tensed as Shiro uncrossed his arms and drew a little closer to him, leaving barely an inch of space between them. He quickly dropped his gaze to the ground to avoid looking him in the eye.

“Lance,” said Shiro softly, a gentleness to his tone in place of the disapproval Lance had been expecting. “Be honest with me. Are you just kidding around or are you being serious right now?”

“Serious,” Lance muttered, wincing in shame.

A pause.

“So...that was a serious offer then?”

Lance peeked up at him. His brain immediately short-circuited at the sight of Shiro blushing. His fearless, ever-impassive leader was actually  _ blushing _ . Because of  _ him _ ?

“Was...what a serious offer?” he said dumbly.

“To...kiss me. My scars.”

“Oh.”

Lance swallowed thickly before breathing out a shaky laugh.

“Shiro.”

“Yeah?”

“Am I dead?”

“...No?”

“I gotta be dead. There’s no way freakin’ Takashi Shirogane just asked me what I think he asked me.”

Shiro gave him what was probably intended to be a sly smile, but his blush and the clear nervousness in his eyes ruined it for him.

“Let’s say he did. What would you say?”

“I’d tell him he’d better not be fucking with me or I’m launching myself into space as soon as we get back to the castle.”

“I think I can safely assure you he’s not fucking with you.”

“I. I uh, ok. Ok, so this is happening. Listen... I might need a while to process this dude,” Lance said after a moment. “Like, don’t get me wrong, this is...this is amazing. But it might be like a month before I can even look you in the eye again.”

“I hope it won’t be that long,” Shiro replied, and there was an unfamiliar, flirty edge to his voice that made Lance’s already overworked little heart beat even faster.

“Yeah, no, I’m full of shit. I’m not gonna last that long. Give me like a day to scream into my pillow and then sleep off the shock, ok? Then we’re gonna have a good, long talk about this, because the minute you let me jump your bones you’ve sealed your fate, dude.”

“All right, I promise we’ll talk before any bones are jumped,” Shiro said with a laugh. 

Lance drew in a sharp breath when Shiro closed the small gap between them then, bringing him into a tight embrace. He scrambled to reciprocate and get his arms around Shiro’s broad chest as quickly as possible. As they stood there basking in the feel of one another he traced his fingertips over the scars on Shiro’s back, wanting so desperately for Shiro to know he truly adored every part of him. Shiro returned the gesture in kind, gently stroking his fingers over the skin of Lance’s sun-warmed back.

“I’m pretty jealous of you, you know,” Shiro murmured. “Your skin is so soft and smooth…”

Lance fought the urge to squeal at being complimented by his hero. And Pidge and Keith had made fun of him for keeping himself slathered in lotion 24/7! Hah!

“You can uh, try some of my lotion if you want. It might help soften the scars a little.”

“You’d have to help me put it on.” Shiro said this with the same hint of flirtatiousness in his voice from before. Lance was going to have a stroke if he kept it up.

“Y-yeah, of course!”

Shiro chuckled at the embarrassed little noise he made as he tucked his face against his shoulder. They stayed like that for a good while, neither of them wanting the embrace to end, before Shiro finally let his arms slip to his sides. Lance clung to him when he attempted to step back.

“Wait. Come here for a sec,” Lance said softly. He wrapped his arms around Shiro’s neck and pulled him down so they were eye-to-eye.

Shiro tensed a little, likely expecting Lance to lean forward and claim his lips, but the younger paladin tilted Shiro’s head just the slightest bit and pressed a kiss to the scar on his nose instead. 

“There. A little taste of what’s to come.”

**Author's Note:**

> I absolutely adore Shance, so I sure hope I did this adorable pairing justice -- let me know what you thought in the comments! I plan on writing more Shance stuff in the near future, so keep an eye out if you enjoyed this fic. Usually I post my shorter ficlets and headcanons on my tumblr (theunemployedrogue), so feel free to add me over there if you'd like. 
> 
> Thank you for reading!!


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